FORTUNA -- Possibly it was a case of familiarity. Maybe it was a matter of intensity. Or perhaps, it was the challenge issued to the players.

Whatever the cause, there was no doubt about Wednesday's final outcome: McKinleyville 58, Fortuna 49.

With their win in the opening round of the North Coast Section playoffs, the No. 11 seed Panthers improved their overall record to 17-10 heading into Saturday's road game against No. 3 seed Marin Catholic (22-7). The Wildcats -- the Marin County Athletic League champions -- beat No. 14 seed Middletown 76-37 in another NCS first-round game on Wednesday evening.

The loss ended the season for the No. 6 seed Huskies (22-6), whose successful season included winning a share of the Humboldt-Del Norte Big 5 championship for the first time in 15 years.

"It was very tough, we played them three times already," said Fortuna head coach Joe Rice, whose Huskies had prevailed in the three prior meetings -- once in a preseason tournament, twice in league. "Hats off to McKinleyville. They came out to play and they beat us.

"After the Niclai, we didn't get out tonight with that same intensity," added Rice, referring to the Huskies' emotional overtime loss to Arcata in the Dick Niclai Tournament last Friday.

From the first quarter onwards, when Mack took the lead -- after Parker Farris and Andrew Nichols nailed consecutive 3-pointers -- it held for the rest of the game, the visitors played with more intensity, more hunger.

"We played hard for a full 32," said McKinleyville co-head coach Nick Koury. "Tonight was a mixture of patience and energy."

Mack was more rested, not having played in nine days, since its own overtime loss to Arcata in the opening round of the Niclai. And having played the Huskies three times already, Koury and co-head coach Jon Willcox did not change their prior gameplans.

But they did issue a challenge to their players.

"We challenged them to play to win for their 'family.' The 'family' being their team, their parents and fans. That was really the thing," said Koury.

The Panthers rose to the challenge.

They generated a 10-point lead (29-19) at intermission, and then weathered the Huskies' third-quarter 8-0 run -- on baskets by Ryan Gilroy, Daniel Teasley, Justin Claus and Max Betts -- that narrowed Mack's lead to five points (32-27).

At that juncture, Panther Ashton Pomrehn -- who finished with a game-high 20 points -- drove through five defenders down the lane for a left-handed layup, and Farris tossed in five points, increasing Mack's lead back to 10 points (39-39) heading into the fourth quarter.

"It was hard to dig out of a hole we got ourselves into," said Rice.

The final quarter was Fortuna's best offensive showing -- 20 points -- including 3-pointers by both Nate Ambrosini and Claus.

But after the Huskies got within six points (43-37), Pomrehn responded with another driving layup. And with Fortuna needing to foul, Mack made its free throws -- hitting 13 of 14 in the fourth quarter -- to ice the outcome.

By contrast -- in a basketball anomaly -- Fortuna did not attempt a single free throw in the game.

"Maybe we didn't attack enough, but we missed our shots in there, and sometimes settled for jumpers," said Rice.